Michigan Basketball: 3 things we learned from win over Northwestern

Road wins like Northwestern will be crucial to Big Ten race

Winning on the road is always a tough hurdle to get over, even for some pretty good teams. But for Michigan basketball, it doesn’t seem to be an issue, as the Wolverines won their fourth game away from home Tuesday night and their second true road game.

Michigan Wolverines Basketball

The reason the NCAA selection committee went to the quadrant system to evaluate wins was to try and give teams more credit for winning away from home, because generally, only the better teams do that consistently.

Well, right now, Michigan is doing damage away from home. Wins over Villanova, Providence and now Northwestern, all came away from the Crisler Arena and because of that, all three of those wins look good on the resume.

Last season, Michigan didn’t get its fourth top-50 win until February and this season, according to the Kenpom rankings, it has four already and five in the top-60 if you count Providence.

That means Michigan’s resume is going to look very good when the season is all said and done. But beyond that, winning on the road, at Northwestern, a place where Michigan had lost two straight, is a very good sign when it comes to the conference race.

You need to beat teams like Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin, however, you can’t lose games you are supposed to win and the Wolverines avoided doing just that Tuesday night.